1!!.. \RI\A liKKVICAl'DA. 169 



a rough nest, to which he always retires when he wants to rest. He 

 is very fond of beechnuts and thrived when fed exclusively on them 

 for more than a week. One evening, not long ago, I put a handful 

 of beechnuts in his water saucer. He soon found them and carried 

 them off. Part he buried in a hole under the saucer, part under his 

 nest, and the rest in an excavation near one corner of the box. 

 This certainly looks as if the animal was in the habit of hoarding for 

 winter. In opening the nuts he invariably commences at the small 

 end, and, after biting a little hole there, strips off one side as neatly 

 as it can be done with a penknife. If left without food for a few hours 

 he will eat corn from the cob, beginning at the outside of the kernel, 

 but it is very clear that he does not relish this fare. He will also eat 

 Indian meal and oats when other food is not at hand. Slugs and 

 earth worms he devours with avidity, always starting at one end, and 

 manipulating them with his fore-paws. But of the various kinds of 

 food placed before him he shows an unmistakable preference for 

 mice either dead or alive. 



The late Robert Kennicott, in a valuable paper upon " The Quad- 

 rupeds of Illinois Injurious and Beneficial to the Farmer," contributed 

 the following to the life-history of this little-known mammal :- 

 " I have several times kept specimens in captivity for a day or two, 

 though they always died by the end of that time, despite my care. 

 While alive, the minute black eye is distinctly seen and always open ; 

 but, though the sense of sight may be possessed in the dark, it 

 certainly is not used in the full light. Upon waving different objects 

 before one, or thrusting my finger or a stick close to its face, no 

 notice was taken of it whatever ; but if I made any noise near by, it 

 always started. If the floor were struck, or even the air disturbed, 

 it would start back from that direction. I observed no indication 

 that an acute sense of smell enabled it to recognize objects at any 

 considerable distance ; but its hearing was remarkable. An exceed- 

 ingly delicate sense of touch was exhibited by the whiskers, and if, 

 after irritating a shrew, I placed a stick against it, in even the most 



